Failure of the Peace Talks

We always knew that the Peace Talks were touch and go. On
the Israeli side it increasingly appeared that the government were not really
taking them seriously. There seemed to be a lack of commitment and a tendency
to accept the status quo. It became more and more apparent that this would lead
to trouble: probably another Intifada on the one hand and serious disapproval,
not to say antagonism, by the world community towards Israel, on the other.
However unbalanced some of this disapproval might be, it was obvious that
Israel was playing a dangerous game.I
say that out of deep concern, not negativism.

On the Palestinian side, frustration with the way the talks
were going led Abbas to speak of quitting the talks and of seeking membership
of various UN institutions. This, especially the latter, worried and infuriated
the Israelis who then spoke of not, after all, releasing more Palestinian
prisoners, as promised at the end of March. So the tit for tat began.

Israel said it didn’t want the talks to fail but the
Palestinians accused them of extending settlements, destroying Palestinian villages
and neighbourhoods, killing Palestinians and planning separate access times to
the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims and Jews, so that Jews could pray in its grounds
because it is the site of their temple – an extremely sensitive issue.

Israel wanted the Palestinians to
stay in the talks and Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke of continuing with the
prisoner release so long as the Palestinians decided against taking unilateral
action against Israel in the UN. The Palestinians demanded Israel freeze
settlements and allow them to construct important buildings in Area C of the
West Bank which is under full Israeli control. But the Israel Lands Authority
issued a tender for 708 residential units in Gilo, a disputed area of
Jerusalem. This led the Palestinians to apply to join 15 United Nations
treaties and conventions only hours before the Israelis met to decide to
release more Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu responded by freezing the
transfer of tax money Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority. (It is worth
mentioning in passing a piece of good news. On Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance
Day Palestinian President Abbas said publicly that the Holocaust was “the most
heinous crime against humanity in modern history.”)

Despite the extensive efforts of US Secretary of State, John
Kerry, the talks descended towards failure. On one occasion Israel threatened
unprecedented sanctions against the Palestinians because they had applied to
the UN and because they were afraid that the Palestinians would prosecute
Israel for war crimes at the world court.

Another sticking point was that Israel demanded the
Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state. For their part the
Palestinians demanded that East Jerusalem became their capital.

Kerry blamed Israel for the failure of the talks because
they did not release the prisoners and they approved the Gilo development
although the causes seem more complex than that. Israel was “deeply
disappointed” at his comments and blamed the Palestinians who wouldn’t even
discuss Israel being a Jewish state.

One Israeli newspaper commented that Israelis would have “to
choose which kind of state they want to live in and which vision of a state
they want to vote for – that of a democratic state that respects the rule of
law and human rights and sees international relations as a vital asset, or of a
messianic, separatist state with features of an apartheid regime, in which a
privileged Jewish population rules over millions of Palestinians.” Other
Israelis said: “If Israel recognises an Arab Palestinian state, the
Palestinians have to recognise a Jewish state.”

The Arab Peace Plan

More recently, Prince Turki Al Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s
ambassador to the U.K. and Ireland (2002 to 2005) and the U.S. (2005 to 2006)
spoke of the Arab Peace Initiative (API) whereby all the Arab countries would
establish normal relations with Israel once Israel withdraws from the
territories occupied in the June 1967 war, and accepts an independent Palestinian
state with its capital in East Jerusalem. (Exact borders and dealing with the
problem of Palestinian refugees would be subject to negotiation). He commented:
“Like others in the region, I remain saddened, too, as to why there has never
been an Israeli government response to the API, despite the Arab world’s
continuing to endorse it at every Arab League summit over the last 12 years,
and at every summit organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and by
the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

Israel as a Jewish state

Prime Minister Netanyahu plans to enshrine in law that
Israel is “the nation state of the Jewish people” whilst guaranteeing the
personal and civil rights of all non-Jewish citizens.Justice Minister Tzipi Livni opposed this
proposal because it was “subjugating Israel’s democratic values to its Jewish
values.” Other Israelis feel the same way. Some Arab Israelis said such a law
would entrench discrimination against them in law and perpetuate their
marginalisation. The Arab nations also said they would never recognise Israel
as a Jewish state. The danger is that the new law would create first and second
class citizens thus contradicting Israel’s Declaration of Independence which
states: “ [Israel] will foster the development of the country for the benefit
of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as
envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social
and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or
sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and
culture.” It would also strengthen the influence of Jewish law over Israeli law
which secular Israelis would reject. However a watered-down version of the bill,
which did not subjugate democratic values to Jewish values, was discussed in
June.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an extreme right winger,
has called for a transfer of Israeli Arab areas to any Palestinian state, which
some Israelis call ethnic cleansing without violence. Some Israeli Arabs favour
this proposal, though. Lieberman claimed no-one would be expelled or banished.

There is an on-going demographic threat to Israel in that
most experts predict that the Arab population in Israel itself together with
the Palestinian areas will soon exceed the Jewish population. Unless there is a
two-state solution this would undermine Israel’s position as a democracy with a
Jewish majority.

Settlements

During the negotiations Israel promoted the construction of
13,850 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In April Israel appropriated
the largest area of land in many years at Gush Etzion which some Israelis said
was illegal. Netanyahu said that Jerusalem will never again be divided and at
the end of June the cabinet approved a plan to strengthen Israeli control over
East Jerusalem. There does seem to be significant support amongst the
Palestinian population of East Jerusalem to integrate into Israel.

“An
apartheid state”?

John Kerry caused a furore by warning that if there was no
agreement on a two-state solution Israel risked becoming an apartheid state.
His actual words were: “a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid
state with second class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the
capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.” He later apologised. There is, of
course, no way that Israeli Arabs are treated like black people were in
apartheid South Africa but, as we have noted, there is a danger of Palestinians
becoming second-class citizens. F W De Klerk, the last white South African
president, said it was unfair to call Israel an apartheid state but added that
the test would be that in a unitary state everyone must enjoy full human
rights.

In passing, it is worth recording that some right-wing,
ultra-Orthodox Jews are protesting about there being a Christian presence on Mt
Zion in Jerusalem. Christian sites have suffered slashed car tyres,
spray-painted slogans and spitting attacks.

The rights and wrongs of the Israel-Gaza conflict

Despite the tendency of some commentators and especially
demonstrators to claim the situation is simple – either all Israel’s fault or
all Hamas’ fault – it is actually not straightforward. There are various
factors.

a)Israel’s
treatment of Gaza before the conflict

In April 2014 the new Commissioner General of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the blockade of Gaza by Israel is
the “longest in history.” He described it as an “illegal collective punishment”
of the Palestinian people. UNRWA states that major problems facing the people
of Gaza include electricity cuts, high unemployment, a three-mile fishing
limit, contaminated water supply and lack of availability of construction
materials. They add that there is “extremely high unemployment [40%]. Far fewer
families can provide for themselves and a staggering proportion of the
population is dependent on UNRWA’s food and cash assistance. Ninety per cent of
the water is unfit for human consumption, so basic hygiene is another great
concern.”They continue: “The ban on
entry of cement and gravel has made it impossible for refugees to build or
repair shelters … The Israel Defense Forces’ imposition of a three-mile fishing
limit has [led to] diminished fishing catch … and increased poverty.” The
infamous Gaza tunnels are used to transfer goods as well as for smuggling
weapons and infiltrating Israel.

However, it also has to be said that instead of building the
economy Hamas has spent tens of millions of dollars creating a militarized
state with subterranean stockpiles of weapons.

Shawan Jabarin,General Director of Al-Haq, a Palestinian
human rights organization accuses Israel of exploiting Palestinian natural
resources.He said a recent World Bank
report noted that the Palestinians could derive over $3bn annually from the
resources in Area C of the West Bank (which is under complete Israeli control).
He added that the Israeli West Bank settlements are strategically located in
order to control water, land and mineral resources and that the Israeli naval
blockade prevents the Palestinians from exploiting the gas reserves off the
coast of Gaza.

b)Hamas’
attitude towards Israel

Hamas is an Islamic Resistance Movement which developed from
the Muslim Brotherhood and is supported by Iran. It aims to establish an
Islamic state in the West Bank and the Gaza strip (in 2006 it won 74 of 132
seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council and was put in charge of Gaza).
Its charter states: “Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging
Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of
the Muslims.”It has called for the
destruction of the state of Israel, and refused to recognize it. Hamas has a
military wing which is responsible for most of the violence. It has carried out
hundreds of attacks against military and civilian Israeli targets – rocket
attacks, suicide bombers, shootings and knifings. Western governments therefore
regard it as a terrorist organisation and, naturally, Israel is antagonistic
towards it.

However there does seem to be a more moderate private aspect
of Hamas which is willing to talk of a truce if Israel allows a Palestinian
State in the West Bank and Gaza. The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement in
April 2014 was said to be based on a two-state solution and recognized the
State of Israel. There have been contradictory comments from Hamas about this
though.

Nevertheless the violence continued, especially by way of
rocket attacks on Israel. The reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas took place
at the time of the breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and it
produced a very negative reaction in Israel. They saw it as Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas linking up with a terrorist group on the border of
Israel which threatens Israeli security. The US said the timing of the
reconciliation was unhelpful but John Kerry said they would work with the new
Palestinian government as did the EU and other world powers.

c)The murder
of the teenagers

Then in June 2014 three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in
the West Bank and killed. Israel accused Hamas of being responsible and claimed
that a number of previous attempts at kidnapping had occurred. Also Hamas
leader Khaled Meshal hinted that Hamas would seek to kidnap Israelis some weeks
earlier. Abbas condemned the kidnappings and accused the kidnappers of “seeking
the destruction of the [Palestinian] Authority.”Israel began to make aggressive raids and
many arrests in the West Bank and Hamas warned that this could lead to a third
Intifada (and a subsequent demonstration on the West Bank where five
Palestinians were killed seems to confirm this). Sadly, Israel reverted to its
practice of destroying the homes of alleged kidnappers, despite the fact that
someone is innocent until proved guilty and other innocent Palestinians
suffered as a result of the demolition. Human Rights Watch described this as
illegal collective punishment. Then, tragically, a Palestinian teenager was
burnt alive by Israeli extremists.

d)Hamas rocket
attacks on Israel

In the first six months of this year, before the Israeli
military response, some 170 rocket attacks were launched against Israel from
Gaza.Rocket attacks from Gaza increased in July. Possible
motives include punishing Israel for its widespread arrests in the West Bank, showing
Hamas was still in charge in Gaza and (if rogue groups were involved) maybe seeking
to undermine the reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Israel responded with air attacks on Gaza but said it wasn’t seeking escalation.
Some days later Israel said it would not launch a larger offensive if Hamas
ceased the rocket fire. However the escalation continued and included the
ground attack by the Israelis. Israel was aware that Hamas had some 10,000
rockets, including longer-range rockets that could reach Tel Aviv and beyond –
a new and very dangerous factor. From July 1st-27th almost 2000 rockets were fired from
Gaza into Israel. Because they are inaccurate they are effectively fired
indiscriminately against the Israeli population.

Tragically,
Israeli air attacks hit an increasing number of civilians, well over a thousand
at the time of writing, including babies, children, disabled people and elderly
people. There was growing criticism of the number of civilian casualties
caused by Israeli military action, but the Israeli response is that Hamas uses
civilians as human shields.

Which
side is mainly to blame?

There is a lot of uninformed, prejudiced comment on this
question. Again, the situation is complicated. Here are some considerations:

1.Hamas is regarded as a terrorist organisation. However
“one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” We did not regard, for
example, the French underground in the second world war as terrorists. We have
described above the serious problems caused by the ongoing Israeli blockade of
Gaza. But Hamas is attacking civilians indiscriminately with its rockets. We
should remember, however, that civilians were targeted by the West in the
second world war, e.g. in the firebombing of Dresden and the use of the atom
bombs. That does not, of course justify the practice.

2.Hamas uses mosques, hospitals and schools to conceal
rockets and other weapons, as well as underground tunnels. It is using
civilians as human shields. However this has been disputed as an Israeli myth
by some Western commentators. It is significant therefore that the UN
secretary-general said a few days ago that rockets were discovered in a UN-run
school in Gaza and now have gone missing, and he demanded a full review of such
incidents.

3.In targeting Ben Gurion airport, Hamas is effectively
firing at civilian aircraft – shades of the Ukraine. On the other hand the
rockets are not guided missiles such as the Ukrainians used.

4.The Israelis ask what other countries would do if 80%
of their population were under constant threat of rocket attacks. We have noted
that Hamas fired some 170 in the months before the Israeli action as well as
some 2000 in July. No country would accept that without a strong response. Some
say there isn’t much real danger to Israelis because of their Iron Dome
protection but, despite appearances, recent reports say the Dome is only about
5% effective and that civilians are protected by civil defence actions.

5.Israel warns civilians of an impending attack using
leaflets, text messages, and prior “knock on roof” projectiles. However
although Israel said the UN had been warned about the attack on the school in
Beit Hanoun, the UN said they hadn’t received this warning. Was this simply a
mistake?

6.Hamas rejected ceasefires at times, when Israel has
accepted them. Could this be because Hamas knows Palestinian civilian
casualties are a PR disaster for Israel?

7.Over 1000 civilians – many of them innocent - have been
killed at the time of writing by Israeli attacks on Gaza and the UN Human
Rights Council decided to form an international commission concerning alleged
Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

8.Sadly, alongside reasonable criticism of Israel,
anti-Semitism is growing in many countries and clouding the issues.

However, the Council of the European Union has just
published a report calling for an immediate ceasefire and strongly condemning “the
indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and militant groups in
the Gaza Strip, directly harming civilians” as “criminal and unjustifiable
acts.” It “strongly condemns calls on the civilian population of Gaza to
provide themselves as human shields.” It also condemns “the loss of hundreds of
civilian lives, among them many women and children. While recognizing Israel's
legitimate right to defend itself against any attacks, the EU underlines that
the Israeli military operation must be proportionate and in line with
international humanitarian law. The EU stresses the need for protection of
civilians at all times.”

NB This letter was published before
the terrible tragedy in the UN school which should have been avoided at all
costs

PRAY

i.For a lasting ceasefire

ii.For the protection of all innocent civilians

iii.For successful negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians to remove the blockade on Gaza whilst protecting Israel’s
security.

iv.For the recent traumas to prompt a resumption of peace
talks between Israel and the Palestinians leading to peace with justice for
both people groups.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: you
may like to read below the very encouraging recent letter from Rachel Netanel,
the Israeli evangelist living on the outskirts of Jerusalem, who is supported
by Paradox. She mentions the troubles but also shares some amazing answers to
prayer. She is winning both Jews and Arabs to faith in Christ.

Beit Netanel News

July 21st, 2014

Dearest
beloved friends,

“Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you.’” Psalm 122:6

All of
Israel is under tremendous pressure as rockets have reached 90% of the
country’s population. But praise God for His mercy, as we have the ‘iron dome’,
which the Israelis have developed. (My son was on the team of Israeli army
system developers who invented this protection for Israeli citizens.)
Because of the iron dome and the fact that almost all homes have bomb shelters,
the casualties in Israel have not been large. However, we are always
saddened to hear of the loss of civilians in Gaza who are used as human shields
by Hamas. This is the difference. In Israel our soldiers are on the
front lines and the civilians hide in bunkers. In Gaza, shelters are used
for Hamas and their rockets, and civilians are used to shield them. Oh
Lord, may we see Your righteousness and Your salvation for both Jew and Arab.

However,
many Israelis are afraid and because they do not know the Lord, these are the best
days to preach the Gospel. I have taught many people about the prophecies
of the Bible and that we need to pay attention to what is happening around us….
in Syria, Iraq, Iran…. God is changing boundaries. He is sending us
warnings. These events are meant to wake us up and repent so that the
same things will not happen to us. God is shaking us up and even now He
is showing us His hand of protection. Now in these days, we need to pay
attention to what is written in the Tenach [Bible] and what is really written
about our Messiah.

There are
many people who want to hear the encouraging words that God has given me for
them. My sister-in-law is one of them. She is the widow of my
brother who died in another one of our wars. Because she is poor and alone,
she wants to come and be with us and to learn more about Yeshua [Jesus].
I am praying with her often.

A couple of
weeks ago we decided at the congregation to begin a new program of
evangelism. Then the war broke out and we proceeded to start with an open
invitation for people to come and have a Kabbalat Shabbat [Sabbath evening] meal
in my home (which is a large cave so it is also a shelter.) We purchased
a lot of food and calculated that perhaps 40 people would come. We called
people on the phone and even put a sign up on the street outside my home.
Almost 70 people showed up. Eighty percent of them were non-believers and
almost all of the believers were Hebrew speakers. It was an awesome
evening. People came from Jerusalem, Ness Ziyona, Rishon, Tel Aviv and
even as far as Haifa. The parents of my friends from Ness Ziyona (whom I
have mentioned in the past) came and brought some musicians with them. So
we had beautiful music all evening and the atmosphere was festive and very
enjoyable. We had so many opportunities to talk with people and share our
faith. One of them was a woman by the name of D. She accepted the
Lord as her saviour and cried so much. She did not want to leave, so she
and a number of others spent the night at our house. In the morning, we
taught more from the Bible and I shared my testimony and about the signs and
wonders that the Lord has done in my life. D. told me that she has never
felt this way before and was so pleased that I gave her a Bible with a personal
blessing written in it. They already have been asking when we will have
the next Kabbalat Shabbat meal and they have also invited us to visit them.

Some of my
friends from the congregation were there and when they saw how this lady was
led do the Lord they felt inspired to evangelize more. Our pastor and his
wife (Eddie and Jackie) also commented that this is the way to evangelize,
through Israeli hospitality and the warm atmosphere which makes people want to
come and hear more. We have decided that we should do this once every two
months as a congregational outreach.

My joy is
to show people that evangelism is not just to give out a tract or to read from
the Bible. I show them how to prepare a warm and loving atmosphere and to
find a common ground with the people so that they will want to hear what we
have to share. There is much preparation that goes into events like
this. It starts on Sunday when we begin to call people that we have met
in our daily walk. We don’t just talk about the Bible but about what is
happening in their day-to-day lives. I usually spend at least 20 hours on
the phone over the week. On Monday we begin to buy some food and by
Wednesday we begin the preparations in the garden and the house by cleaning and
setting up tables, etc. We continue to call people and to encourage them
to come. On Thursday, we begin food preparations and on Friday we cook
and pray.

Our vision
is growing and we are seeing so many people coming as we try to do things to
reach people by being sensitive to them and by constantly re-enforcing our care
for them by calling them and keeping in touch. [My husband] Gilad is such
a wonderful godly example to many. He demonstrates true humility and
servant-hood. They all love him so much as he is always serving them by
caring for their needs and giving them something to drink or eat. His
love for them and the Lord shines through even without a common language.

Let me fill
you in on the saga with the people from the synagogue who at one time threw
Gilad and I from there on Yom Kippur a few months ago. Since then some of
them have come to celebrate feasts in my home and one of them is an officer of
the army who is the leader of young people being inducted into the army. They
asked if they could bring about 40 of these young people to my home to have a
day of fun and also to hear my testimony. I shouted to God for this great
gift and wonderful opportunity that He has given me. One Sunday they came
and stayed from 8 in the morning until about 8 in the evening. They had
so much joy just having fellowship with food and fun mostly in my beautiful
garden. I gave them food, cake and lots of love. About 10 of them
gave me their phone numbers, as they really want to come again and learn
more. The officer said that many commented that they hope they could grow
to be like me… Lord, may they give their hearts to you and become just
like you!

Beloved,
please continue to pray for Israel – for her protection and especially for her
salvation. Please pray for all of our dear messianic soldiers who even as
I write are entering on foot into Gaza. It is so heart breaking to hear of
these young men kissing their families goodbye and going to the front
lines. May they return in peace. Please pray that the innocent
people of Gaza will find peace both physically and spiritually.

In the
undying love of our Messiah, Yeshua,

Rachel (Netanel)

If you would like to support Rachel financially (support she really
needs) please send a cheque
to: